UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Devils defenseman Henrik Tallinder didn’t give himself high marks in is first game back after sitting out seven in a row. But he also did not feel he committed a crime bad enough to merit a penalty shot for David Ullstrom.

“No, I don’t. I don’t know why it was a penalty shot,” Tallinder said. “At worst it was a penalty. I just saw (the referee) pointing.”

Tallinder, playing in place of healthy scratch Mark Fayne, had his first period pass blocked at the left point by Ullstrom. A fortunate bounce off an official gave the Islanders' winger a breakaway.

“He blocked a shot and it bounced off the ref to the middle,” Tallinder said.

Both Tallinder and Marek Zidlicky caught up to Ullstrom, who was brought down and awarded the penalty shot at 16:45.

Goalie Johan Hedberg may have ticked Ullstrom's backhander with his glove and the shot hit the crossbar.

“I don’t know if I did or not. He made a pretty good move. He got it up quick,” Hedberg said.

Hedberg has stopped nine of the 11 career penalty shots he's faced.

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Adam Henrique thought a penalty should have been called against Islanders defenseman Joe Finley five minutes into the third period.

Finley’s stick clipped Henrique in the face and neck.

“It hurt,” Henrique said.

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David Clarkson said there was no reason to be concerned after the 5-1 loss to the Islanders.

“I don’t think we’re ever concerned. I think we believe in ourselves in this room,” Clarkson said. “Every night we show up and believe we’re going to win. We thought that tonight going in. We’ll have to get ready for the next game. Hopefully the outcome is better.”

Clarkson credited the Islanders’

“I don’t have the answers. It was a tough game for us. I thought Moose played well and made some huge saves for us, especially early in that game,” he said. “They’re a good hockey team. They’re fast. They carry the puck in the zone always. They’re an impressive hockey team.

“Our penalty kill has been fantastic all year. Their power play was really moving the puck.”

Hedberg said: “We could’ve been up, too. We had a lot of chances. (Goalie Evgeni) Nabokov played well in the net for them. Then they got those three quick ones late in the second. That gave them a cushion. We tried to push back but it didn’t happen.”

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Tallinder on his first game since Feb. 2 in Pittsburgh: “I felt okay at the start. It was a weird game. Maybe not the kind of game we want to play. We want to play with more control.”